Tag: Supergirl in the Multiverse

Earth-483, sometimes Earth-50, is home to the Wildstorm universe. The Wildstorm universe was initially part of the Image comics shared universe but after the 1996 Shattered Image event, a few of the titles would split off into a seprate universe which would become the Wildstorm universe before later merging with the main Earth-0 in the New 52 era. These Wildstorm titles included; Gen 13, Grifter, Wildcats, Planetary, and most relevant to this post The Authority. The Authority was a group of metahumans that would often travel through the bleed and visit alternate universes and generally get up to no good while trying to save the day. The Authority team included members such as Midnighter, Apollo, the Engineer, the Doctor, Jack Hawksmoor, Swift, and their leader Jenny Sparks.

Jenny Sparks was the spirit of the 20th Century and as such possessed powers based on the technological advancements of her century, often representing themself as electricity. Due to Jenny being the leader of the team and her prominence as the Spirit of the 20th Century, I am viewing her as the Superman analogue of the universe, which points to her successor Jenny Quantum the Spirit of the 21st Century as this universe’s Supergirl representative. Jenny Quantum was born at the start of the century, when Jenny Sparks died which was shown in The Authority (Vol. 1) #12 and would soon be adopted by the Authority and would continue to be a part of the team up until it’s merging with the main DC Universe. In Jenny Q’s Wildstorm appearances she mostly just existed as a baby and then a carbon copy of Jenny Sparks, down to the smoking and wearing union jack t-shirts and having electricity powers. In the New-52 Stormwatch title however, she really became her own character. This young Chinese girl would wear a hoodie styled after the Chinese flag, and her powers would instead be based on the technilogical advancemets of the 21st century. Because of the unknown advancements to be made in the next 100 years, Jenny’s powers are still being realized and often present themself as bordering on science fiction, often visualized as her writing complex math equations in the air.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Jenny Quantum is stood in the foreground writing equations in the air. THe background is the bridge of the Carrier with open windows showing the red skies of the Bleed and a display table showing a hologram of the Carrier ship. A yellow star with a 483 on top of it is in the top right corner.

In the nearly 100 entries of Supergirl in the Multiverse, somehow this is the first one that I’ve encountered that has it’s origin in a Supergirl story. We have had plenty where Supergirl shows up in the elseworld, or stories where an alternate Supergirl was a major player, but Earth-387 is specifically a Supergirl universe. Adventure Comics #387 was near the front end of Supergirl’s run as leading feature in the magazine and told the story of “The Wolf Girl of Stanhope”. This story did not take place in the universe of Earth-387 but that universe does get visited briefly in the story.

In an effort to help Supergirl gain immunity to Kryptonite, Dr. Sanford from Stanhope creates a serum to potentially cure Supergirl of her weakness. The serum does work, however it has the unholy side-effect of turning Supergirl into Super-Wolf-Girl giving the maid of might a monstrous face and hands making her look like a movie wolf person. It turns out however, that a parallel universe suffered a similar fate. A pocket universe opens to show a normal looking Supergirl, this however is the Supergirl of Earth-387 where all it’s citizens look like wolf-people and that Supergirl also took a serum from her universe’s Dr. Sanford and the pair of Supergirl’s had opposite and similar effects of making their hero’s gain an unsettling visage. The pair of Dr. Sanford’s are able to swap serums and administer to each Supergirl reverting them back to normal.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Super-Wolf-Girl is leaping towards the camera her wolf claws extended. A newspaper in the foreground reads “Supergirl Returns” and a blue sky and cityscape fills the background. A s-symbol in the top right has a 387 on it.

There are quite a few universes that re-imagine superheroes into different time periods. One of the common time periods that likes to get explored is the Medieval era. The current most known universe is probably Earth-118, the home to Dark Knights of Steel which reimagines the DC Universe but with knights and castles and sorcery. You also have the Elseworlds tale from the mid-90s called League of Justice which leans more towards the mystical/fairy tale side of Medieval stories, but today we’re looking at Earth-395 which is home to the stories Batman: Dark Knight of the Round Table and Superman: Kal which lean into the Arthurian legend while depositing 2 of the more prominent heroes of the DC Universe. While both of these tales are canonically a part of this universe, they don’t bear any interaction and stand alone for the most part. Due to this, and because I didn’t particularly care for the Batman story, I will mostly be focusing on Superman: Kal. A lot of Superman Elseworlds tales are based primarily around Kal-El landing somewhere other than on the outskirts of Smallville and being found by the Kents. This story places Kal outside the Kingdom of Lexford, once again found by 2 kindly farmers but many centuries before in Medieval England. Kal, having named himself, grew up on the farm but in his teenage years the town blacksmith, Oll, would hire him on as an apprentice. This apprenticeship would lead to Kal competing in a tournament to win the affection of the fair lady Loisse. While Loisse is clearly enamored with the young smith, the king Lex wants her for himself, and quite brutally takes her. Earlier in the tale Lex had found the rocket ship that brought the alien to earth and forced Kal to forge a suit of armor for him out of it. Lex also had a piece of Kryptonite that he wore as a necklace, this paired with the impervious rocket armor made him nigh indestructable, but nothing could stop Kal from avenging his lost love. Kal had also forged a sword from the rocket. and the pair came to blows tragically ending in both of their deaths.

The story ends on an epilogue with Jamie Ollson telling the story to a young child (named Merlin) and he also reveals that with Kal’s last bit of strength he safely stored the sword so that someone years later could use it for good. The sword is seen embedded in an anvil, serving as the basis for this week’s Supergirl entry. Supergirl does not appear in any of these stories, but the story potential of another hero rising up and taking up Kal’s sword was too good to pass up. The story could be told a couple ways, perhaps Kara – the young knight who would weild the sword – could also be Kryptonian like Kal was. But she could also be a human that just follows in Kal’s footsteps and uses the sword for a new generation as a protector with the obvious blessing that comes with pulling the sword from its resting place. There is definitly potential for more story here, but Dark Knights of Steel will probably keep any alternative Medieval Elseworlds tales from popping up any time soon.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. The knight Kara is standing over an anvil labled “Oll-Son”. She is pulling a sword out of the anvil and a blue light is emitting from where it was stored. Kara backlit from an open doorway and the room she is in has various bits of armor and other metal-work. A s-symbol with a 395 on it is in the top right corner.

A couple years back, in the most recent iteration of Action Comics Weekly, Supergirl had the starring role in the back-up story which has come to be known as Universe End. I did cover the entirety on this story when the collection came out last year (Supergirl: Universe End) but in short, this story shows Supergirl tasked with escorting a captured prisoner (Prisoner 8912, the embodiment of Fear) to her final prison sentence. The journey is much more exciting than that however, and the final destination is different than what she initially was tasked to do. It’s a very interesting look at how Supergirl approaches obstacles with unfailing hope, help, and compassion for all.

So what does this story have to do with Supergirl in the Multiverse? In the final act of the story, when Prisoner 8912 is facing off against her brother when, through force of will, she merges her body with that of Supergirl and Power Girl (who joined via Supergirl’s mind) into a really killer amalgamated form. This form appears first (and exclusively) in Action Comics 1080, part 11 of the story. While it doesn’t really count as a separate universe and should instead count towards Supergirl Through the Ages, but her defined costume and S-symbol are some of the main aspects I look for when putting together this series. Also I just really wanted to draw it.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Supergirl, merged with Power Girl and Prisoner 8912, is stood on a cliff overlooking a swampy environment. A motif of Supergirl’s S Symbol with a 0 on it is in the top right corner.

The home of Super-Savage would first show up in the pages of Superboy, issue 183 specifically. The story for the most part mirrors the classical Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan. Kal-El, surviving the explosion of Krypton, lands not in Smallville but in the jungles of Africa. Here he is raised among the native gorillas and he would over time develop powers. Later into his young adult life, a group of hunters came into the jungle and began caging and stealing the jungle animals to take back. Kal, by now using the name Karkan the Mighty and having refashioned blankets from his rocket into a super suit, helps save these animals from their cruel captors. However, during this encounter Karkan is shunned by the gorillas that raised him and he returns to the city with Toni who had shown kindness to Karkan when the other humans didn’t. Karkan would later (in Superboy 188) have a brief adventure with Toni in the big city, but has since been an un-explored universe aside from a couple brief cameos.

For Supergirl’s addition to this universe, I tried to think of how Superman landing in Africa would affect Supergirl, and for the most part I don’t think it would change. Supergirl, particularly in the silver age, has a fairly normal Kryptonian upbringing on Argo city until her teenage years when the saved city begins to fall apart. At this moment, Zor-El and Allura search the cosmos to find a suitable planet to send their daughter to when they land on Earth where Kara’s cousin Kal-El has become Superman. With this universe instead having Super-Savage, the Zor-El family has instead fashioned their daughter after Super-Savage and into the new hero; Savage-Lass.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Allura and Kara Zor-El are standing next to a Super Telescope. Kara is wearing a super-dress fashioned after Super-Savage. The pair are discussing sending Kara to earth. A display from the Super Telescope shows Super-Savage. Savage-Lass’s s symbol is in the top right with a 183 on top of it.